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He was born in
Santa Monica, California, on April 2, 1920, and grew up in the
Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. He was raised a
Roman Catholic by his mother, who was of
Irish and
Native American descent, and served as an
altar boy. Webb attended
St. John's University, Minnesota, where he studied art.
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Webb moved to
San Francisco, where a wartime shortage of announcers led to a temporary appointment to his own radio show on
ABC's
KGO Radio.
The Jack Webb Show was a half-hour comedy that had a limited run on ABC radio in 1946. Prior to that, he had a one-man program,
One Out of Seven, on KGO in which he dramatized a news story from the previous week.
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By 1949, he had abandoned comedy for drama, and starred in
Pat Novak for Hire, a radio show originating from KFRC about a man who worked as an unlicensed private detective. The program co-starred
Raymond Burr.
Pat Novak was notable for writing that imitated the
hard-boiled style of such writers as
Raymond Chandler,
with lines such as: "She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm
smoke. Her voice was hot and sticky--like a furnace full of
marshmallows."
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His radio shows included
Johnny Madero, Pier 23, Jeff Regan, Investigator, Murder and Mr. Malone, Pete Kelly's Blues and
One Out of Seven. Webb provided all of the voices on
One Out of Seven.
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In 1951, Webb introduced a short-lived radio series,
Pete Kelly's Blues, in an attempt to bring the music he loved to a broader audience. That show became the basis for a 1955
movie of the same name. The film featured major stars such as
Janet Leigh,
Edmond O'Brien,
Peggy Lee,
Lee Marvin,
Martin Milner, and
Jayne Mansfield.
Ella Fitzgerald makes a cameo as singer Maggie Jackson.
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In 1959, a television version was made. Neither was very successful.
Pete Kelly was a cornet player who supplemented his income from playing
in a nightclub band by working as a private investigator.
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Webb's most famous motion-picture role was as the combat-hardened
Marine Corps drill instructor at
Parris Island in the 1957 film
The D.I., with
Don Dubbins as a callow Marine
private. Webb's hard-nosed approach to this role, that of Drill Instructor
Technical Sergeant James Moore, would be reflected in much of his later acting. But
The D.I. was a box-office failure.
Webb was approached to play the role of Vernon Wormer, Dean of Faber College, in
National Lampoon's Animal House, but he turned it down, saying "the movie didn't make any damn sense".
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Webb had a featured role as a crime-lab technician in the 1948 film
He Walked by Night, based on the real-life murder of a
California Highway Patrolman by
Erwin Walker. The film was produced in
semidocumentary style with technical assistance provided by Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn of the
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The film's thinly veiled fictionalized recounting of the 1946 Walker crime spree gave Webb the idea for
Dragnet:
a recurring series based on real cases from LAPD police files,
featuring authentic depictions of the modern police detective, including
methods, mannerisms, and technical language.
Dragnet premiered on NBC Radio in 1949 and ran till 1957. It was also picked up as a television series by
NBC, which aired episodes each season from 1952 to 1959. Webb played Sgt.
Joe Friday and
Barton Yarborough co-starred as Sgt. Ben Romero. After Yarborough's death,
Ben Alexander joined the cast. In his vision of
Dragnet, Webb said he intended to perform a service for the police by showing them as low-key working-class heroes.
In 1951 the television series,
Dragnet, based on the radio series, made its debut. The ominous, four-note introduction to the
brass and
tympani theme music (titled
Danger Ahead), composed by
Walter Schumann, is instantly recognizable. It is derived from the
Miklós Rózsa score for the 1946 film
The Killers.
On
July 31, 1955, the film,
Pete Kelly's Blues, was released. It was directed by and starred
Jack Webb in the title role of a bandleader and musician. It featured
Janet Leigh,
Edmond O'Brien and
Peggy Lee, with
Ella Fitzgerald,
Lee Marvin,
Martin Milner, and
Jayne Mansfield in cameo roles.
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In 1963, Webb teamed with actor
Jeffrey Hunter to form Apollo Productions. They produced a failed television series,
Temple Houston, with Hunter in the title role. In the summer of 1963, Webb pushed
Temple Houston to production. The series was loosely based on the life of the frontier lawyer
Temple Lea Houston, the youngest son of the legendary
Texan Sam Houston.
Time magazine - March 1, 1954
Webb's personal life was defined by his love of
jazz. He had a collection of more than 6,000 jazz recordings. His lifelong interest in the
cornet allowed him to move easily in the jazz culture, where he met singer and actress
Julie London. They married in 1947 and had daughters Stacy (1950–1996) and Lisa, born 1952. They divorced in 1954.
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He was married three more times after that, to actress Dorothy Towne for two years beginning in 1955 . . .
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. . . to former
Miss USA Jackie Loughery for six years beginning in 1958,
and to his longtime associate, Opal Wright, for the last two years of his life.
Webb died on December 23, 1982, of an apparent heart attack at age 62. He is interred at Sheltering Hills Plot 1999,
Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, and was given a funeral with full Los Angeles police honors. On Webb's death, Chief
Daryl Gates announced that badge number 714, which was used by Joe Friday in
Dragnet, would be retired. Los Angeles Mayor
Tom Bradley
ordered all flags lowered to half staff in Webb's honor for a day, and
Webb was buried with a replica LAPD badge bearing the rank of sergeant
and the number 714.
Jack Webb has two stars on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame,
one for radio (at 7040 Hollywood Boulevard) and the other for
television (at 6728 Hollywood Boulevard).
Jack Webb was posthumously
inducted into the
Television Hall of Fame in
1993 (
link to video of the induction ceremony below).
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
Just the facts, Jack!
